In the manga, when Mario describes the fighter pilots in Hoover's lineage, he notes that Hoover's father shot down 130 planes with his Messerschmidt during World War II. The manga conspicuously left out the fact that Adolph Kippenburg would have been fighting for Nazi Germany. By extension, depending on how old he was during the Third Reich, Hoover himself might have been a member of the Hitler Jungen as a child.

In the manga, the anti-government forces slaughter a Bedoin camp to punish them for giving succor to deserters. If the anti-government troops are willing to slaughter innocent noncombatants for trivial offenses, what other war crimes have they been committing in the meantime?

In the manga, readers learn that Hoover Kippenburg's father was a fighter pilot in World War II, and his grandfather flew in World War I. The theme that appears throughout the Kippenburg lineage is not ace fighter pilot status so much as shame. Karl Von Kippenburg fought for the losing side in World War I, and if he survived the war, he would have endured Germany's collective humiliation under the Treaty of Versailles. Adolph Kippenburg fought for Nazi Germany, which would have been a stain on his honor after the war. Hoover left the West German military after several pilots died in an accident during a training exercise he oversaw. Three generations of Kippenburgs ended their air force careers in shame.

Why send a older, one-eyed man in an outdated carrier strike craft to lead the canyon mission in the 2004 OVA? Not only is Roundel a gifted pilot, his personal craft is a Blackburn Buccaneer. The Bucc is already a respectable ground attack aircraft, but it also has one other thing going for it: ridiculous maneuverability. In the Airstrike Impossible mission, his Buccaneer would have been better able to handle the twists and turns demanded of aircraft attempting to fly through the canyon than pretty much anything else in the squadron that flies with him. He flies point in the formation not only because he's the sort of man who would lead from the front, but he's completely assured that he'll make it and won't endanger his following subordinates, unlike many of the A-4 and F-4 pilots who either hit the walls or are shredded by debris from their fallen comrades.

Why are so the Skyhawks and Phantoms the Mook Mobile of choice for Red Shirt Area 88 pilots when some nameless mercenary pilot has to die? Not only are they fairly common Jack of All Stats designs, but their identifying codes respectively are the A-4 and the F-4, and Four Is Death!

The whole premise is somewhat silly. Conscripting foreign pilots against their will and then handing them fighter jets would be very, very stupid in real life. ("Hold your fire! I'll help you bomb the capital back into the stone age!")

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